City management is inching closer to the crucial phase of a new police facility: being able to afford it.
Not that all of those plans and blueprints and virtual trials haven’t been important, but without the money, it’s not going to get very far.
City Manager Rachael Tabelski asked City Council for permission to apply for the funding during council’s meeting Monday evening. Or at least she broached the topic for a final vote to be placed on the next business meeting agenda. So there’s at least one more step before grant and loan applications are a go.
Recent estimates for the new facility are $15.5 million, Tabelski said, to be paid off with a 30-year public improvement serial bond, a $2.5 million USDA grant and potential use of facility reserves with a current balance of $790,000.
Annual payments for the $15.5 million bond would range from $700,000 to $800,000 at current interest rates, she said.
“We talked at length about this during the budget, this is why we bumped reserves up so high this year, so we had that money ready to go to make debt payments. I'd also like to say under USDA, we'll be getting a 3.75 percent interest rate, which is locked in. And we do not close until the completion of the building. And if the interest rate for some miraculous reason goes down with USDA at any point during that process, we can capture a lower rate,” she said. “So in the general obligation bond market, you're not going to see these types of rates. So while I think it's still high, right now with the rates the way they are, it's a very good situation we put ourselves in using USDA as a lender.”
Council agreed to move the vote to the next business meeting.
The new facility has been mapped out for the parking lot along Bank Street across from the Jerome Medical Center. Police Chief Shawn Heubusch has said the police station is the second most publicly traveled city facility — with City Hall being first -- and it’s important to get the building and details right, he said, and should save money from the typical myriad change orders of large construction projects.
A total of construction, engineering, equipment and material costs were estimated late last year to be from $13 million to $15 million, which have apparently gone up now, to $15.5 million.
During that last presentation a few months ago, at least 115 public parking spots were to remain after construction, in addition to free public parking on surrounding streets, “which would more than adequately serve the needs of existing businesses on Washington, Alva and State Streets,” Tabelski had said.
This has been a long time coming, given prior consultant studies, Task Force Committee meetings and discussions about how to proceed with the current station housed in a 167-year-old building. Known as the Historic Brisbane Mansion, the Main Street site has been deemed unsuitable for police operations, and renovations were ruled out as being too costly.
“There have been no less than five studies conducted since 1991 to determine the future of the police station in Batavia, as well as a citizen task force commissioned to investigate possible site locations,” Tabelski said. “The location of the new facility was identified by the task force in their top three site recommendations.”
The new facility will improve “the quality, efficiency, security, and regulatory compliance features of the services and activities of the department,” she said. It will also enhance the opportunities to meet community-oriented policing needs, and become a space to conduct community events, including educational forums, police-assisted addiction recovery initiatives, explorer post, citizen academy, and focus groups.
Rendering by Ashley McGraw Architects courtesy of the City of Batavia.
